- Tags: Gold Coast Community, News, Palm Beach, Top Read
Community Coming Together for Taj, a local 8yr old boy.
What an awesome & inspiring community we live in – City community with small town values!
In March we were made aware of a community family fun day to raise money for a local family whose little boy Taj had recently been diagnosed with brain cancer. Mel & Andrew, Taj’s parents own & run a small local driving school in Elanora & their boys attend Tallebudgera State School. They are one of our own, in our own backyard & they needed some support quickly to enable them to focus solely on Taj’s recovery without the added pressure of financial strain.
The organisers (5 local mums, from different backgrounds & occupations) had 3 weeks to pull this event together. They set themselves a massive target of raising enough funds to cover the families mortgage for a 12-month period. They pulled in every favour they had owing and approached every local business and asked for financial support. The community responded with an outstanding “YES…..we are onboard, count us in!!!!”
It was originally planned to be held at a local hall but 1 week in the organisers realised that it simply wasn’t going to be a viable option due to the amount of support and entertainers that wanted to be a part of the day. They approached the local Elanora Highschool, Cameron Hodges, the principal couldn’t of been more supportive & accommodating to the requests put to him & his team.
What we saw at this funday was simply amazing and really highlights the values held by the community we live in.
EVERYTHING was donated, Top Notch Productions organised all the entertainment - jumping castles, inflatable slides, animal farm & pony rides, face painters, balloon artists, local sporting & dance groups performed on the main stage AND nickelodeon sent PAW PATROL! All the entertainers donated their time & talent. The police and fire brigade came along for the whole day The bar was stocked, the bbq was sizzling, the cake stall was manned by Woolworths who baked 1000 cupcakes & cookies AND donated all the sausages & numerous raffle prizes.
The cent auction was also 100% donated and it was the biggest I have ever seen ….all of this is only a small portion of what was there.
One of the highlights was the Live auction – all prizes were 100% donated and some were in HIGH demand, Ed Sheeren, PINK, Katy Perry tickets, QLD football jerseys & holidays just to name a few things. First National were so proud to be a part of the auction, we called in our Auctioneer Extraordinaire Mark who had the crowd captivated and he extracted every last cent from the buyers. It was great to be on the other side of the auction process for once!
The amount of people who donated their time was inspiring, time is precious these days and it was volunteered abundantly by both adults and children.
For those of you who were lucky enough to attend “Coming Together For Taj” you would of seen the amazing community turn out, even in the rain!!!
This day really was a testament to the kindness and generosity of our community and we loved playing a small role in it. The final tally at the end of the day was $35,000 with every cent going directly to the family……The target & goal was achieved!
We might be a city but it is evident we hold small town values and generosity. I am so proud to live in the Elanora/Tallebudgera/Palm Beach community.
by Dale Harris
Community Coming Together for Taj, a local 8yr old boy.
palmbeachfn.com.au March 2018 First National Palm Beach Corner of 6th Avenue & Cypress Terrace, Palm Beach, Queensland 4221
Phone: 07 5559 9600